Fusee



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FUSEE Filed March 30, 1940 sgpt; 19, 194.4.

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Sept. 19, 1944.

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R. FHUTT FUSEE Filed March so, 1940 2 sheets-sheet 2 l n s l PatentedSept. 19, 1944 FUSEE Raymond F. Hutt, Fort Madison, Iowa, assignor toAnthes Force Oiler Company, Fort Madison, Iowa, a corporation of IowaApplication March 30, 1940, Serial No. 326,851

'3 Claims.

The present invention relates to fusees, and more Yparticularly tofusees such as are used iby truckers and drivers on the highw'ay. Thesefusees have for years been used on the railroads and are now required ontrucks lby the Interstate Commerce Commission. It has been consideredthat the fusee should be used in conjunction with the flares which,according to many State laws, have to be carried by a trucker and setout when a stop is made upon the highway. The fusee is of advantage rfortwo purposes. It provides an immediate light which the operator mayignite without matches quickly and carry with him when he alights with aminimum danger to himself or to the public. The lighted fusee alsofunctions as an ignition device by means of which the ares which have tobe set out are lighted.

when the operator alights from the cab and of Referring now providingmeans for igniting the flares.

A single fusee for each stop, however, becomes a complicated orunnecessarily expensive device for the trucker. A fusee preferablyshould be constructed so that it would produce a maxmum burning periodof around fifteen minutes. This meets the Interstate Commerce Commissionrequirements on safety and also provides a long burning period in case astop is longer than had been first anticipated. Most of the stops,however, will be so short that a single fifteen minute fusee would be anexpensive luxury for the trucker.

I have provided a novel fusee construction which furnishes a singlefusee having the requisite burning time, and which at the same timeprovides that a maximum of salvage will be obtained in the event thestop or necessity for the fusee is considerably less than the burningtime of the whole fusee. For example, the present invention contemplatesas a practical embodiment a single fusee capable of burning for a fullfifteen minutes, which is so constructed that if, for any reason, thestop is shorter than onethird the normal burning time of the fusee,twothirds of the fusee may be salvaged, and this shorter twothirds maybe used for other short stops without adversely aifecting its ignitionor burning qualities.

The features and advantages of the present invention will appear morefully as the description proceeds, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings wherein a preferred form of the invention isshown. It is to be understood, however, that the'drawings anddescription are illustrative only and are not to be taken as limitingthe invention except insofar as itis limited by the claims.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view taken through acomplete fusee embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a View in elevation illustrating the manner in which ignitionof a fusee takes place;

Fig. 3 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section illustratinghow the fusee burns;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section illustratingthe breaking of a partially burned section of the fusee fromtheremaining unburned sections, and

Fig. 6 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section showing theshorter fusee resulting from Fig. 5 with the cap re-applied.

in detail to the drawings, the device shown in Fig. 3 is a completedfusee constructed to fulll the necessary requirements of the Bureau ofExplosives and the Interstate Commerce Commission. This fusee includes abase plug I0 which may serve as a 'mounting for a spike II or othersuitable supporting means. The body of the fusee comprises a pluralityof sections I2, I3 and I4 of the necessary chemical composition toprovide a brilliant llame of the required color. The several sections ofthe fusee are enclosed in paper tubes I5, I6 and I'I respectively. Asshown in Fig. l, the top tube Il has its upper end crimped and turnedin, as illustrated at I8, so as to seal the top and around the ignitionmaterial which is indicated at I9. Sections I2 and I3 each have embeddedin the upper end thereof a body of ignition material, as shown at 29 and2l. If desirable, the tops of the tubes I5 and I6 may be crimped over inthe same manner as the top of the tube I'I. This, however, is normallynot necessary.

The three sections I2, I3 and I4 are housed and connected together by anouter paper tube 22 which also laps over the wooden plug I0 at the baseand serves to unite the several parts of the fusee into a singlestructure. The thickness of the tubes I5, I6 and I1 and the outer tube22, are such as to properly control the burning of the fusee withoutproducing enough chimney to materially obscure the flame.

The fusee is provided with a cap 23 which is composed of a woodenscratcher head 24 having the necessary igniting material 25 thereon. Atubular sleeve 26 of paper is secured on the head 24 and is adapted totelescope over the upper end of the fusee body. A suitable pad 2'I isplaced insidethe sleeve 26 to engage the ignition material I9 in themanner shown in Fig. 1.

The cap is secured in place on the fusee by means of a piece of adhesivetape 28 that is adhered directly to the side of the sleeve 26. Thescratcher material 25 is small enough in area to be entirely covered bythe tape 28. The tape 28 is water-proof and can be loosened and stuckback again several times before it loses its adhesive qualities. It willbe noted that the tape has its portion 29 sufficiently long to extendcompletely over the head 24'and lap down on the opposite side of thecap. It is also long enough to have a substantial portion 30 extendbeyond the cap at the open end for attachment to the body of the fusee.

In Fig. 2, the fusee is shown with the cap reversed and the scratchermaterial25 exposed readily to engage the ignition material I9 and ignitethe fusee. 'I'he fusee in burning produces a sort of well, as indicatedat 3l in Fig. 3. The residual material left after burning runs down overthe outside of the tube 22 and the upper edges of this tube and theinner tube provide aVV rim around the burning chemical. It is customaryto so construct the paper tubes as to control the time of burning of thefusee to a certain degree. Care must be taken, however, that the tubesdo not break down so slowly in burning as to produce a chimney aroundthe burning chemical that would obscure the light. It is highlyessential that throughout the burning of the chemical the tubing besubstantially of the same character in order that the burning may besubstantially uniform. It.will be observed from an inspection of Fig. 1that in the present case there is practically no change in the thicknessof the paper tubing about the chemical from one end of the fusee to theother.

While the thickness of the tubing about the chemical remainssubstantially uniform through-v out the length of the fusee, thestrength thereof, insofar as its resistance to breakage, is weakened atthe junctions of ythe sections I2, I3 and I4. This is accomplished byhaving the inner tube cut off so that it merely rests upon the nextlower tube without any intervening closure. The advantage of thisconstruction is illustrated in Figs. and 6Y where a partially burned topsection of the fusee is broken ofi by striking the fusee a sharp blow atthe point 33. This causes the outer tube 22 to break at the junction ofthe inner tubes I6 and I'I. The operator, therefore, saves the two lowersections I2 and I3 of the fusee. He places the cap 23 in position on thesection I3 and secures the tape 28 in place to protect the scratchermaterial 25 and kto prevent accidental detachment of the cap.

It is believed to be evident from the foregoing description that thepresent fusee provides all the advantages of a single fusee for adefinite length of time. It provides also the advantages of a pluralityof short fusees without increasing the storage space necessary for suchfusees and without in any way adversely affecting the use of the deviceas a single fusee. It is obvious that the several sections may comprisemore than the three shown in Fig. 1 where'the need therefor exists. Itis believed to be obvious that other methods of so weakening theconnection in this art.

between the adjacent sections as to enable their separation may beemployed. The present invention in its broader aspects is directedtoward the provision of a single fusee .in a plurality of sections endto end, so arranged that the several sections may be burned as acontinuous unit and alternatively as individual units with the advantageof salvaging those units not ignited.

From the foregoing description it is believed that the features andadvantages of the present invention Will be readily apparent to thoseskilled Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new anddesire to securev by Letters Patent is:

1. A fusee of the character described comprising a base plug having afusee supporting member secured thereto, a plurality of separate papertubes arranged end to enden said base plug, each tube having a fillingof combustible chemical and ignition material embedded in thecombustible chemical at the end of the tube most remote from the baseplug, a paper tubev enclosing the several sections and secured to thebase plug, and a cap member telescoped over the end of saidlast namedtube opposite thebase plug. l

2. A fusee of the character described comprising a base plug having aVfusee supporting member secured thereto, a plurality of separate papertubes arranged end to end on said base plug,

each tube having a filling of Ycombustible chemical and ignitionmaterial embedded in the combustible chemical at the end of the tubemost remote from the base plug, a paper tube enclosing the severalsections and secured to the' base plug, a cap member telescoped over theend of said last named tube opposite the base plug, said cap havingscratcher material on the head thereof, and a waterproof `adhesive tapecovering the scratcher material and Yadhering the cap to said outertube. l

3. A'fusee of the character described, comprising a plurality ofsections of combustible mate--Y rial superposed end to end upon a base,a small body of ignition material mounted on'the combustible material atthe top of the fusee, another small body of ignition material mounted onthe top of each section below the section having the first named body ofignition material' thereon whereby to provide a body of ignitionmaterial upon each section in position to ignite that section afterremoval of the superposed section,

' and supporting tubing of uniform thickness for said sections,thetubing being weakened at the junction of the sections so that thesections may be, readily separated into separate shorter fusees.

RAYMOND F. HUTT.

